Hey I finished the chapter outline for Act I! :)

Tentative Chapter Outline
The name in parentheses indicates whose pov the chapter is from.

Act I

Chapter 1 (Merru) – Merru's soul has been put into a construct's body. Merru thinks, WTF, dragons?!?, decides not to panic, studies his new body and the dragons' language, theorizes about why the dragons are treating him the way they are and what they plan to do with him, and is generally worried and frustrated by his lack of knowledge and ability to control the situation like he usually does.

Chapter 2 (Lieann) – For a total flip of perspective, Lieann is a sophisticated, intelligent dragon in some sort of complex social situation, perhaps a party held for dragon nobility. Lieann sees Ravennin, analyzes him, and decides to seduce him.

Chapter 3 (Merru) – Merru and Attranath are assigned to each other, and go through some initial training exercise. Merru learns some dragon words, to the dragons' surprise.

Chapter 4 (Attranath) – Attranath is a junior member of the group, trying to follow orders but uncomfortable with ordering Merru around. He is torn between the other more dominant alpha males' (possibly including Attranath's older brother) suggestions about what he should do and Merru's displeased reactions when Attranath follows these suggestions.

Chapter 5 (Lieann) – Lieann successfully seduces Ravennin and they screw.

Chapter 6 (Ravennin) – The morning after. Ravennin thinks about how badly sleeping with a beta male combines with his own problems and goals, but his need for approval and affection is stronger and he guardedly, without being willing to talk about it, indicates that he's going to keep sleeping with Lieann. (Lieann is astonished by this but plays it cool and cautiously takes as much as Ravennin is willing to give him.)

Chapter 7 (Merru) – Merru figures out how to pick the lock on his cage, goes exploring, and has the odd experience of being petted. Attranath finds him and panics, trying to get Merru to get back in his cage ASAP. Merru objects, but after Attranath pleads a bit Merru gives in and grumblingly cooperates.

Chapter 8 (Attranath) – Attranath and Merru get where they're supposed to be without getting in trouble (just barely) but Attranath feels a bit guilty. Attranath is given a book with tips on how to train parrot constructs (which they erroneously think Merru is). (Another interaction between Attra and Merru to build their relationship.)

Chapter 9 (Lieann) – Lieann finds out about Ravennin's dream of being a Dominion and makes plans. Ravennin and Lieann argue because Lieann is not submissive enough and Ravennin not intelligent/brave enough, followed by good make-up sex.

Chapter 10 (Ravennin) – Ravennin is fairly content because he won the argument and got laid. He is in a contemplative mood and realizes he is grateful to Lieann because he's not a virgin any more, and thus doesn't have to lie about his experience and be embarrassed because he has to lie. Ravennin's big sister figures out Ravennin has a lover (but not who it is) and talks to him about it; Ravennin makes her promise not to tell anyone because their father would not approve.

Chapter 11 (Merru) – Merru locks Attranath in his cage, Attranath panics and breaks down sobbing, Merru is alarmed and opens the cage as fast as he can and hugs Attranath. Merru has decided that Attranath needs and deserved his sympathy and help, and tries to make it up to Attranath by showing how intelligent he is and how excellently he can carry out construct tasks. When Attranath puts Merru back in his cage he doesn't lock the door.

Chapter 12 (Attranath) – Merru grooms Attranath, which warms Attranath's heart despite teasing from the other alpha males. Attranath starts thinking of Merru as a person.

Chapter 13 (Lieann) – Ravennin gives Lieann a totem cape, which is initially misconstrued because Lieann has no interest in hunting and is startled to receive a bloody animal skin. Then he realizes what it means, but it's too late, Ravennin's feelings have already been hurt and he storms off. However, Lieann sends the skin off to the tailor's to be made into a cape and plans how to apologize. He is less cold-hearted to Ravennin now that he realizes Ravennin has feelings too.

Chapter 14 (Ravennin) – Lieann apologizes to Ravennin and asks Ravennin to put the finished totem cape on his shoulders; this mostly mollifies Ravennin although he still feels like Lieann doesn't really understand him or value the same things he does. Some member of Ravennin's father's political faction starts to be suspicious/critical of Ravennin and make him doubt himself more and worry that his relationship with Lieann will be discovered.

Chapter 15 (Merru) – Merru discovers beta males and that he is attracted to them and that they (or at least this particular one) will have sex with him. Merru and Attranath are best friends now, and Merru is alarmed and depressed to find out that Attranath thinks Merru should stay as far away as possible from beta males.

Chapter 16 (Attranath) – Now that Merru thinks of dragons as people and potential mates, he doesn't like sleeping in the construct area, so he invites himself into Attranath's nest. Merru mentions that he thinks of Attranath like a brother, so Attranath thinks for the first time about the possibility of being brothermates with Merru. Attranath, now perceiving Merru as his leader, is attracted to him. Chastely sharing a nest with Merru is making him insane. So Attranath masturbates in the shower and can't help moaning Merru's name, much to his embarrassment.

Chapter 17 (Lieann) – Ravennin attempts to avoid Lieann. Lieann, annoyed and a bit hurt, seeks him out.

Chapter 18 (Ravennin) – The riskiness of Lieann's plan and the fact that it reveals Lieann's intention to marry Ravennin, makes Ravennin panic and refuse to participate. Lieann, irked that he came up with a great plan to give Ravennin his dream but Ravennin doesn't care, argues, and it escalates into a shouting match. Ravennin says he would never marry Lieann. Lieann calls him a coward and tells him not to come back (without a proposal in hand?). They break up.

Chapter 19 (Merru) – Merru notices Attranath's crush and seduces him. Merru's crest is dyed black so he looks like a real alpha male so he and Attranath can get handfasted without any trouble. And they do get handfasted. And have a nice, sweet sex scene.

Chapter 20 (Attranath) – Merru and Attranath narrowly avoid being caught in bed together when a messenger pounds on Attranath's door to wake him up. Political turmoil is brewing (caused by Lieann?) and Attranath has been suddenly promoted (because thanks to Merru's help his training scores were sky high!) and put in charge of a group of dragons. He panics and insists that Merru take command instead, which works because the new dragons don't know Merru or Attranath and Merru's crest is still conveniently dyed black. So they switch roles. (One of the new dragons in the group is Ravennin?)

Act II

Chapter 21 (Ravennin) – Ravennin, bereft of Lieann's approval and affection, is now more desperate than ever to do things the 'proper' way and gain social approval. Having no friends, he is grateful when Attranath is friendly to him, and astonished to find himself getting along well with another alpha male. He suddenly has hope that he really can take Attranath as a submate and be a normal dominion... if he can just ignore this cursed impulse to pounce on Attranath and fuck him silly. (He doesn't know that Attranath already has a submate.)

Chapter 22 (Merru) – Merru has observed that Attranath likes Ravennin and extorted a confession of attraction from an embarrassed Attranath. Commander Merru has an interview with Ravennin where he tries to figure out if Ravennin would react violently to the suggestion that he sleep with another alpha male. Merru makes Ravennin a sub-commander and assigns Attranath to help him.

Well... so far so good, as it is said...

But there isn't much in this that gets to solving society's misconceptions about homosexuality. Yet.

And still, it sounds like you DO have a good idea of where all this is going. It really sounds promising though. So keep going, and let me know when you get a draft of your second and third parts. I am dying to learn what is happening.

Well, the first step towards solving society's misconceptions about homosexuality is to solve the primary characters' misconceptions about homosexuality, and that does mostly happen in act I.

You don't have any comments on the particular chapters outlined or there arrangement? Something about the timing bothers me - 12 seems to not have enough content, while 18 and 19 try to do too much too fast...

I'm losing track of what I've already said in my posts here. X_x Did I already mention the idea that maybe each soulbreed of dragons has a particular type of magic which matches their personality? This might be interesting, because if Merru has a new soulbreed he might then have a new kind of magic. But, would giving him a new kind of magic to learn how to use clutter the story or convey the wrong moral?

Dunno what the moral should be, so it's hard to tell. But from where I stand, the obvious meaning would be "don't stand set in your ways. Try to innovate and evolve to higher degrees of intelligence" or something equally pompous.

If you were intending to have a moral about sexuality, it IS being done wrong, though.

And if you were indeed planning to have your story say something about both, then... I am lost too.

sorry, I can't help any further, I lack sleep.

Well, I hope you get some sleep then. :)

I wa intending the moral to be that different things are right for different people, everyone should figure out what will make them happy and pursue it, ignoring preconceptions and social censure. Also, I want to suggest that an important, maybe essential ingredient for happiness is belonging to a family of people who love you for yourself, and talk about how love has the varius components of friendship, passion, and loyalty/commitment.

As for sexuality, the only thing I really have to say about the matter is that considering some sexual orientations or activities 'sinful' is stupid, which goes back to what I said above about different things being right for different people. People should not say a sexual orientation or activity is wrong just because it happens to not be right for them.

Why do you need dragons?

And why do you need your story to take place in an alien landscape? Couldn't the same meaning be conveyed through a story in Los Angeles or San Francisco?

Well, first of all I never write in a modern earth setting. I could have done the story with humans in a historical/fantasy setting - 3 of my existing stories, _Facepaint_, _As the Moon Loves the Sun_, and _Uke On Top_, are versions of the love story between Merru and Lieann in various historical/fantasy settings. I could also have one the story with humans n a standard futuristic setting, probably a space/military academy.

But I love elaborate culture building and biology-based science fiction, it's really fun to write. I wanted to show Merru, a McGuyver type character who is normally sufficiently good at manipulating the situaion aound him that he doesn't really have to work for anything, getting dropped unexpectedly into a totally new setting which would really challenge his calm personality and adaptability, and frustrate his manipulative nature with his lack of knowledge of the setting. I love the idea that even his body is suddnly foreign to him. The setting is really supplying a lot of the conflict here - as I said above, Society, aka the dragons' world, could be considered the antagonist. I got the idea for this in a how-to-write-romance-novels book which said that in regency and other historical romances the setting should be considered a character because it has a destinct personality and often its very nature frustrates the protagonist's goals.

So, I decided to have an alien society for Merru to become a member of, but I didn't immediately decide to have them be dragons. The aliens went through several drafts: humans genetically engineered to look like hermaphroditic lizardlike dragons, hermaphroditic aliens which selected their mates in a method similar to capture the flag, matriarchal furry humans, patriarchal doglike aliens with alphas and betas and color-coded by personality, the doglike aliens as a slave race plus their owner race of hermaphroditic birdlike dragons and some newly enslaved humans, shapeshifter aliens where a small portion of the population had psychic abilities and they didn't have gender until puberty, ditto but without the shapeshifting, and finally the birdlike dragons with alphas and betas who are totem-coded by personality, use scentmarking, and have magical abilities. So as you can see the current race design includes versions of most of the traits I've played with - I feel that it works well except for the magic, which I don't understand, and some lingering questions about how the small clans are united into cities and some sort of government.

Is there anything you would change about the dragons?

Hell, "dragon" is just a term you've picked up to design a creature you've created. Call it "schmartbogartz" if you prefer, I won't say a thing...

I was merely curious about why the dragons. Or at least why some alien creature, since you clearly intend them to react in Human ways, even if to some alien code. Plus the fact that you want to explore a problem that is not simply and exclusively alien and created by their society, but a problem that also belongs to human society as well... I needed to know which part of it would have to be weeded out, until we got to the purest form of your idea.

So dragons it be.

And homosexual ones, too.

In a society clearly NOT homosexual nor prepared for them.

Why decide to forgo completely any physical conflict? Is it for the sake of your personal tastes? Does it have anything to do with the dragons physical behavior? Does it suit better your plans for the story?

I am simply trying to get a better overview, because something is disturbing me. We've been working this story in the exact opposite way I usually do. I mean, usually, I come up with a world setting which seems coherent, and from that I imagine the kind of interactions characters might have, the problems that might emerge, and from there, I get a story. Not a parable, but, simply a story. But what we've been doing, is creating a storysetting, and trying to shape the world around that, in order to have this story exist. It seems too awkward for me... I mean... The androgynity of Beta males and extra feminity of beta females are very well thought out of the way. But why did you come up with such a feat? It resembles nothing ever heard of, and you probably needed it to express your vies about one character, which implies that you've created the betas to suit your needs for some character. So that you wouldn't make him a whimpy.

In the same fashion,; it seems to me that you've thought about scent-marking beecause you needed some exta-alpha behaviour in one of your character. And alpha dogs use scent marking, and musk and this kind of things. You didn't thought of these as an essential part of your world. This is an afterthought addition. One that works its way through, though. It doesn't create loopholes, as far as I can spot. But the very way of adding things for the sake of the story is VERY disturbing for me. I'm used to finding explanations for the causes, nott for the consequences. Consequences and behavior are... logic.

And what is even more dsiturbing is that your behavior ARE logic, but in a sort of tautologic way. It remembers me trying to sculpt something out of clay. I always started with a small lump of clay, and then I wanted to add something extra, and added a small bit of clay on one end. And then another bit of clay, and then a third and a fourth... Until everything collapsed, and what I had was the initial lump with scars about it. And when I knew that the sensible approach to that was sculpting things OUT of a BIG lump of clay...

Well, I see the theme as the point of the story's existence (all my stories are parables/fables), and the character dynamic as the thing I am most interested in playing with, so naturally I add the worldbuilding afterward to support those two. There aren't any essential parts of the world - they only become essential when you hang some plot on them. With the adding bits of clay example, the problem was not inherently with the adding-on method, but with the fact that you didn't didn't get them to intertwine seamlessly at the joint, and you didn't design your add-ons to support each other. (I love sculpting! :grin: )

I created the beta males so that everyone would know Lieann was gay as soon as they saw him and dislike him for this reason, while being astonished at the idea that Merru might be gay. So yes, I created the worldbuilding and character details to create the relationships and opinions I wanted to explore. It may disturb you because it wouldn't feel natural to you to create a story that way, but it feels like the most natural way to do it to me, and not everybody creates stories the same way, you know. :wink:

The point of the scent has to do with animality/sensuality, as well as pointing out that polite behavior in the dragons' culture is really not the same as in any human culture. Also I thought being nose-blind was a good weakness to give Merru and contrast him with Ravennin. (In an earlier version I took more of a 'biology determines psychology' approach and gave Merru a new awareness of scent after he was turned into a dragon, an later on emerging instincts related to grooming wings and building nests, but Merru has enough other stuff going on, and it gave the other characters more depth to show dragon instincts as normal to them and affecting their behavior.)

Forgoing physical conflict is because of my personal esthetic taste (I don't like action/combat scenes), is also because of my personal philosophy (violence almost always does more harm than good and should be avoided), and does suit my plans for the story (violence does not belong in a romance with a 'happily ever after' ending.) It does not have much to do with the dragons - I imagine alpha males have lots of fights, even duels to the death, and having bigger males than females probably results in rape sometimes (although strong tradition and importance of honor/reputation counteract that somewhat). But I am the kind of person who is happiest and proudest of myself when I can sneakily avoid problems, so I want a plot about sneakily avoiding problems, not violently confronting them. I like verbal and strategic duels much better than physical ones, and I like puzzle-solving (conflict against a non-malevolent obstacle) better than fighting (conflict against a malevolent villain). And of course I like love scenes, which hopefully don't get more violent than an argument or maybe a slapped cheek.

Honestly I doubt I could write a violent plot if I tried, because I find violence at best boring and at worst repulsive.